Hendrix ex-girlfriend condemns film

Foremer girlfriend of rock guitarist dismisses film biography as fiction

Hendrix girlfriend condemns film biographyPhoto: Getty Images

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney

1:24AM BST 05 Jun 2014

Jimi Hendrix’s ex-girlfriend has attacked a new movie about his life as “completely unethical” and says a scene in which he beats her was “just completely made up”.

Kathy Etchingham, an Australian who met the guitarist while they were living in London, was his girlfriend from 1966 to 1969. Her character in the film All Is By My Side is played by Hayley Atwell, a London-born actress. The lead character is played by André Benjamin – or André 3000 – from the hip-hop group OutKast.

Ms Etchingham, a retired estate agent living in Melbourne, said she had not been consulted about the film and that the depiction of her relationship with Mr Hendrix and his rise to fame was “wildly inaccurate”. She has threatened legal action to block the film’s release in Australia.

”If it’s that bad, I’ve got no choice,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald. ”If I don’t, it’ll just get repeated and repeated and it’ll become the truth.”

Ms Etchingham has not seen the film – she will see it at a film festival in Sydney this week – but has read reviews and spoken to a friend who attended the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.